O'Reilly, Kurtz: Obama Weakens Stewart's, Colbert's Influence

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly says his Comedy Central adversaries Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are in danger of losing their influence as the Obama administration suffers scandal after scandal.

Howard Kurtz, Fox News' media analyst, said it has already gotten a lot more difficult for the pair.

"Neither of these guys goes very hard after President [Barack] Obama. The humor is very gentle when it happens," Kurtz said Wednesday on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor."

"And that has kind of taken them out of the zeitgeist."

Kurtz's "Media Buzz" co-host Lauren Ashburn said O'Reilly and Kurtz might be wrong, pointing out all the scandals under the Obama administration, including the VA and IRS scandals and the Obamacare debacle.

O'Reilly acknowledged that Stewart sometimes will "poke" at Obama, though he said Colbert rarely does.

Kurtz added that even when Stewart was talking about the IRS scandal this week he glossed over the cover-up and any possible role by the White House. When they take half the targets off the field they are "a little bit out of step," Kurtz said, "because the story right now is the Obama administration."

Both Stewart and Colbert's core audience is liberals under the age of 40, O'Reilly said, and the hosts have to keep them happy.

"The core wants to hear that O'Reilly and other traditionalists and all the Republican politicians are bad," O'Reilly said. "And if they don't hear that, they may not watch."